All posts tagged strategic planning

In my last post I highlighted 3 reasons why business owners don’t create the right strategy that can take their business to the next level.

Basically…

They can’t find the time;

They didn’t know how to create a strategy plan or

Because last year was good enough they didn’t see the point.

If you fall into the 1st group and you haven’t read my last post then please do, because I focused on the importance of setting aside the time and how to.

If you fall into the 3rd group then you should read my report, Why Most businesses Fail, and see why no matter how successful your business was last year, it could easily have gone the other way and why having the right strategy would in fact have made last year even more successful and this year even better.

In this post I want to briefly talk about the 2nd group of business owners – those who don’t really know how to create a strategy that can make this huge difference to their business.

If you fall into that group, I have some good news.

The first piece of good news is that if you are simply carrying on from where you left off last year and haven’t created a strategy that could transform your business this year and beyond, well it’s not too late. Continue reading →

This is my 1st post of the year, so belated Happy New Year. It’s been a busy 3 weeks comprising preparing a course that is almost ready to launch (I’ll tell you more later), updating my report, Why Most Businesses Fail, working on a new business that I launched late last year, (I might tell you more about that another time), client work and getting our house ready to put on the market. (If you know anyone interested in a beautiful converted barn in the Cotswolds then do let me know.)

Anyway, lots going on, all very exciting and all is going according to plan – that’s my plan that I mapped out towards the end of last year.

Talking of plans, you may remember that during the last couple of months of the year, I did wax lyrical about the need to plan for your year ahead. How did that go? What changes have you made that will make your business stronger this year than last? Continue reading →

Imagine floating in space high above the Earth. You’re physically safe, wrapped in your space suit and tethered to your ship, so nothing to worry you there. All your attention is focused on what you see before you – our beautiful planet.

In silence, as you gaze upon the planet that is our home, the glorious colours, the expanses of water, the swirls of cloud formations, how do you feel? I imagine you would feel calm, relaxed, at peace and your mind free of the hustle and bustle that is your life down on the planet.

You see weather patterns, land masses and where the planet is dark you see towns and cities lit up and you see connections within and to other towns and cities.

With your mind free from the detail of everyday life you see the big picture and not the small detail.

But you know that whilst you gaze down upon our world, it is constantly pulling on you trying to drag you back to its surface, back down to the noise and the small detail.

Your business does the same; it possesses a gravity, a pull, from which it is so hard to escape. It holds you in its embrace and presents you with only the small detail.

It is hard to escape the pull of your business, to escape the daily demands it places on you. But escape it you must. For only by looking down on it from up high can you truly look at and understand your business and plan where you’re going to take it and how. Continue reading →

As you read this you probably have a million and one things to do and your head is full of stuff that you need to somehow prioritise and get done.

That which has your attention will be that which you are mindful of and will focus on getting done and so as all this stuff fights for your attention, the one thing that is unlikely to get a look in is the thing that you need to start preparing for – next year. Continue reading →

If you haven’t done any or only some of these strategic things well it’s not too late. You have around 10 days off now and no doubt during those 10 days you’ll have had enough to eat and drink, enough merriment and more than enough Christmas TV.

Hopefully you’ll seek some quiet time and maybe go for walks or read or whatever you do to relax. Let your mind wander to your business and think about the year that’s past and about those things that did and didn’t work. Focus on what worked really well and that you can take forward and focus on the top things that held you back or knocked your business off course.

If you can exploit the top two or three things that worked and overcome the top two or three things that didn’t, what difference would that make to your business? Think about this and then at some point find an hour or two of solitary time and think about these subjects I’ve been covering.

Set your destination, draw out the route you’re going to take as I described and plan how you’re going to stay on that route whilst exploiting that which did work and eliminating those elements that held you back.

This is creative work and will probably take 2 or more iterations. But being creative, it should be enjoyable ‘work’ that clears the cobwebs of over-indulgence and mind-sapping TV viewing.

Have a relaxing, peaceful holiday, read a good book and give your business a little non-stressful, creative time.

As Christmas approaches like a freight train it’s time to reflect on and review the past year. To do that you need to do what most find hard and that’s stop.

Get off the treadmill and stop what you’re doing and give yourself and your managers space so that you can look at the year and review how well or not it went. Even if you are your business and there is no one else, it’s so important that you do this.

Doing this is vitally important because you don’t want to repeat the mistakes of this year, you don’t want the same issues holding you back and you want take what went well into next.

If I asked you what your strategy is over the next 2 to 3 years, what would you say? Would you, like so many business owners, CEOs and government heads tell me what you aim to achieve or would you actually describe a strategy that details how you will get there?

People often confuse the two and as a result their business suffers – they think they have a strategy whereas they actually have a goal. Not knowing the difference can have a big impact on your business. Continue reading →

As we approach the end of the first calendar quarter you should have a pretty good idea as to how things are going and if you are on course to meet your targets at the end of the year.

You might think that it’s way too early to say how the year is going to pan out because you haven’t engaged with all the customers you intend to and haven’t won the contracts that will result in you hitting your goals and who knows what might happen in the coming months. All that is true. But still, you should know. And here’s why…

Your Business Foundation

My name is Christopher Briggs, the author of the best selling book "Your Business Foundation".
I help business owners build their business on a strong foundation that gives them the certainty and control they need to achieve their aims.

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